"It wasn't soft like the sand down the Jersey Shore, but gray and gritty," he said. "That really struck me."

At 11 a.m. today, Meade will be honored at the base of the Statue of Liberty at a special ceremony organized by The French Will Never Forget — an association dedicated to demonstrating France's gratitude for America's assistance over the last century.

The Liberty Island event will pay tribute to Meade and "all those heroes who fought and died with bravery and dignity to liberate France," the organization said.

This is the second time in the past month that Meade has been honored by the French for his service in World War II. Last month, during a ceremony at West Point, he was decorated as a chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, France's highest distinction.

It is the ninth medal Meade has received for participating in the Allies' invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

The modest Meade said he was "surprised at first" to learn that he would be receiving the Legion of Honor "because I thought they were looking to give those out to heroes, not guys like me. I'm just another Joe."

Hardly. To be eligible for the award, U.S. veterans must have fought in at least one of the three main World War II campaigns to liberate France: Normandy, Provence/Southern France or Northern France.

Meade was in all three.

"I was assigned to Patton's 3rd U.S. Army as it was being formed, and when I got to England, we were told we were going in to D-Day," Meade explained.

After six days waiting for war on the English Channel, Meade — whose service began just 10 days after the birth of his son and didn't end until three years later — was sent into fire.

This week, Meade recalled Gen. George S. Patton's inspiring, salty speeches. He talked about the Army's advance as it made its way toward the Saar River Valley in western Germany. Once there, the troops waited for weeks leading up to the infamous Battle of the Bulge.

"It was so cold and icy, our tanks were sliding off the road at the Luxembourg border," said Meade, an avid photographer who has binders filled with pictures from the war.

One photo he took shows Patton making good on a promise to his soldiers that he would urinate in the Rhine River before advancing into Germany.

Several of the images were from the Buchenwald concentration camp, which Meade — as part of Patton's army — helped liberate. The pictures show piles of ashes and corpses as well as emaciated survivors.

Those days at Buchenwald were tough, Meade said, explaining that the 3rd Army's next move was into Austria, where Patton was ordered to halt his advance.

According to Meade, a relative initially reached out to the French Consulate's office last year about the Legion of Honor.

But before getting the medal, Meade spent a year providing documentation of his military service, including his discharge papers.

"I'd rather invade Europe again," he joked, "than go through that process a second time."